Mentoring

If you would like to progress in your career, develop new skills, or work towards professional registration or designation, mentoring might be just what you need.

What is mentoring?Mentoring can be defined as a process where a more experienced individual offers another structured support and guidance to help them progress in their career. Mentoring can be considered as a three-stage process:

1. ExplorationThe mentee describes the issue/challenge they would like to overcome or improve upon.

2. New understandingThe mentor helps the mentee to gain insight into that issue by sharing their experiences.

3. Action planningTogether, the mentor and mentee decide what action needs to be taken.

Having a mentorWhen the relationship works, the benefits to the mentee can be significant. As well as honing their skills and achieving their goals, the mentee can develop more confidence, new openings for networking and learn more about themselves as individuals.

Being a mentorMany mentors find the process of using hard-won skills and experience to benefit someone else to be immensely satisfying. It can also be very instructive to see what challenges colleagues are facing in the earlier stages of their career.

Benefits to your companyThere are a host of good reasons why mentoring is popular. It can have a tangible impact on staff retention, job satisfaction and morale. Additionally, mentoring can help staff to be more productive by enabling them to adapt more effectively to a change and take on new responsibilities with greater confidence.In fact, many companies find mentoring to be an indispensable part of their professional development offering, along with coaching and more specific training courses.

IOP SupportIf you would like to find a supporter for your Chartership application you can use the Find A Member service.The IOP has a member only LinkedIn group with over 5,000 members for you to choose from.The IOP has over 50 special interest groups that you could also tap in to find a suitable mentor.